{"id":3651,"date":"2012-09-30T22:29:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T02:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathgradblog.williams.edu\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2012-09-30T22:29:32","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T02:29:32","slug":"stories-mathematicians-mathematical-fiction-homepage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/mathgradblog\/2012\/09\/30\/stories-mathematicians-mathematical-fiction-homepage\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories for Mathematicians: The Mathematical Fiction Homepage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If you enjoy math, it\u2019s a pretty fair bet that you\u2019ve seen A Beautiful Mind<\/em><\/a>, the Academy Award-winning film about the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash.\u00a0 Perhaps you\u2019ve even read Sylvia Nasar\u2019s biography<\/a> of Nash, on which the movie was loosely based.\u00a0 But suppose you wanted to watch another movie inspired by math, or that you wanted to read a novel with mathematical themes.\u00a0 How would you find one?\u00a0 The Mathematical Fiction Homepage<\/a>, maintained by Dr. Alex Kasman of the College of Charleston, would be an excellent place to start!\u00a0 The website is a searchable database filled with reviews of all kinds of media\u2014films, books, short stories, comics\u2014evaluating them both on their literary merit and their mathematical content.\u00a0 You can search by genre, find lists of Dr. Kasman\u2019s favorite works for a variety of audiences (including children, math students, sci-fi fans, and literati), and even filter for a range of mathematical motifs such as \u201cfemale mathematicians\u201d or \u201cM\u00f6bius strips\/nonorientability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mathematical fiction might seem like a bit of a niche genre\u2014and it is, in many respects\u2014but there are a lot of high-quality works to be found in the database.\u00a0 Proof<\/em><\/a>, both the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Auburn and its film adaptation, is one of my personal favorites.\u00a0 Like A Beautiful Mind<\/em>, it deals with mental health issues, intertwining those with themes of family, inheritance, and the nature of proof.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small, intimate drama and it handles its difficult material with sensitivity.\u00a0 Some may find the mathematical content to be a bit too superficial, but while the references are somewhat simplistic, I thought their thematic resonance was quite powerful. \u00a0If books are more your scene, The Housekeeper and the Professor<\/em><\/a>, by Yoko Ogawa, is a lovely short novel about a woman and her son who, in a strange and poignant way, become a sort of family for an amnesiac former mathematician.\u00a0 The prose, translated beautifully from the original Japanese, is spare and effective, and if you like literary fiction or stories that are quietly quirky, it would be a great choice.\u00a0 Finally, from the short story section, I recommend \u201cDivision by Zero,\u201d<\/a> by Ted Chiang.\u00a0 Chiang writes top-notch sci-fi, but this story skews a little closer to home\u2014it\u2019s the story of both a mathematician devastated by her discovery of the fundamental inconsistency of mathematics and her husband\u2019s attempts to repair their relationship in the wake of her suicide attempt.\u00a0 Woven in with these parallel plots are thematically relevant and lucid references to important developments in the history of mathematics.\u00a0 The story is emotionally compelling and the math works really well.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of other really cool works listed in the database, too\u2014I hope you\u2019ll check it out!<\/p>\n

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If you enjoy math, it\u2019s a pretty fair bet that you\u2019ve seen A Beautiful Mind, the Academy Award-winning film about the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash.\u00a0 Perhaps you\u2019ve even read Sylvia Nasar\u2019s biography of Nash, on which the movie … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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